Doug's Running Thingy

18 miles on the road bike (15.6 mph) in the morning.  Short run this evening... or not.  We'll see.

First time in quite a while I ran my old standby figure 8 that includes both the ravine trail and the overstreet trail.  Felt downright decent.  Will probably maintain 20-25 miles per week for a while with this route thrice weekly, plus twice weekly track work and maybe a 5K race or other such zippy runs once a week.

 "Racing" the mile on Saturday and then a trail 8K on Aug 28 - opted for the 8K instead of the offered 5K so that I don't try to race it and throw myself a mental monkey-wrench.  I really don't feel ready to race 5K just yet - would like to at least shoot for under 20 minutes, and I ain't there yet.

Did ravine trail/overstreet again today, but started at the track, so its a bit longer.  Boy-child needs like 45 miles by Sunday to hit 500 for the summer, so he and a few others ran before school, which of course means I had to get him there at 0630 - ah well.  Only a half hr earlier than I usually run, but it was noticeably cooler than yesterday - come on Fall!  Did the middle 3 miles a bit under 8 minute pace - this time last year that would be more like a comfortable 6:30 pace - getting there.  Definitely feeling a bit leaner and meaner with every run now.

Good run this morning after taking yesterday off - did weights and core only.  Ravine trail to New Trail (9:50 again downhill on New Trail - good effort).  Tells me the 9:39 a couple weeks ago was definitely influenced by adrenaline... running with the big doe - interesting.

A subconscious attempt to miss the University of Florida convocation turned an easy 4 to 5 miler into about 9 miles on the San Felasco trails in Gainesville. I dragged Bret out early before the ceremony for a sunrise run with the boars and bunnies on trails I had run once before figuring it would be no problem.  Before too long, we were in unfamiliar looking territory, and it went a bit downhill from there.  We finally assaulted an old guy on the trail and stole his map (I'm sure he made it out alive) so that we could get back to the trailhead, and off to the O'Connell Center in time to welcome our daughters and the other 6,400 incoming Gator freshmen.

Thanks for running slowly with me, Bret, and thanks for not getting too terribly ticked off - sorry, Tracey!  Once again, I assume full responsibility (just ask my wife, I do that a lot). 

After the unintended easy 9 yesterday, I was not very confident of hitting my planned 5:40 for the mile on the track today.  Did a 2 mile warm-up in the trails to work out the kinks, and then a few strides on the backstretch... strides aren't supposed to be that difficult.

First 800 was a bit slower than goal pace (2:54 vs 2:50 goal), but comfortable.  Third lap, as always, was rough, but actually a little faster than the second.  A couple of the younger/less experienced guys on my son's XC team came up on me during the last lap, so I stuck to them and eased in at 5:42 - pleasantly satisfied considering my lack of fitness and the overly long shake-out run the day before.  Did a mile cool down and called it a good day.